Acadia
University announces $1.1 million in funding for faculty innovation
For Release: April 30, 2002
(Wolfville,
NS) - An
announcement today of $1.1 million in funding for Acadia
University
faculty members has positioned Acadia University to start the next
phase of the Acadia Advantage program and to strengthen its lead in
enhancing technology in both teaching and research. The new program
is made possible through the support of a $1.82 million gift in
support of teaching from The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation.
Today's
information session focused on the portion of The J.W. McConnell
Family grant that is directed at supporting innovation and teamwork
in the integration of technology to the learning environment.
Faculty members from all disciplines were invited to submit
proposals for project specific funding from this grant. The program
allows for maximum creativity from faculty and successful proposals
will be awarded $250,000 to $500,000 over a three-year period.
"The
J.W. McConnell Family Foundation grant has enabled Acadia to
continue to invest in the core business of universities -teaching.
It has positioned Acadia to provide the tools that will lead our
faculty to the next level of teaching innovation. Virtually no other
university in Canada has this kind of support purely available to
faculty for teaching innovation," said Dr. Kelvin Ogilvie,
Acadia's President and Vice-Chancellor.
The
goal of this funding is to take the Acadia Advantage program to the
next level by providing exceptional support to academic units which
demonstrate the desire to implement academic learning enhancement
over the entire unit curriculum. The clear object of the program is
to enhance the academic experience for Acadia students.
Acadia
is Canada's leading university in program innovation, exploring new
teaching and learning models, reconstructing program components and
leveraging its technologically enhanced environment to continuously
advance the educational experience for students and faculty. In the
period between 1996 and 2002, leadership from our faculty in these
areas has helped attract an additional $6.62 million investment in
faculty development. The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation grant
acknowledges Acadia's leadership in enhancing the learning
environment.
In
1996 Acadia invested over $15 million in technology infrastructure
campus-wide for the Acadia Advantage program and the establishment
of a teaching support centre, the Acadia Institute for Teaching and
Technology (AITT). Together with students, faculty seized the
opportunity to forge new models for teaching and new pedagogical
applications for technology, which today are the standard for
educators and institutions seeking to follow Acadia's lead.
This
announcement continues Acadia's tradition of providing excellence in
education. For eight consecutive years, Canada's
opinion leaders have considered Acadia to be the best overall
primarily undergraduate university in Canada. In the Maclean's
annual universities issue, released November 19, 2001, Acadia placed
first in all four categories of the reputational survey: highest
quality, leaders of tomorrow, most innovative and best overall.
Acadia is the first university ever to be noted as the best in all
primarily undergraduate categories and it marks the sixth
consecutive year that Acadia has been considered the most
innovative. Acadia is the only primarily undergraduate
university in Canada to be ranked in the top 10 of all universities
in Canada.
For
more information on this latest faculty development initiative
see http://www.acadiau.ca/news/McConnellProgram.pdf
-30-
For more information contact:
Sheri Woodland
Communications Manager
Office of Public Affairs
Acadia University
(902) 585-1362
Acadia
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